Irish Time

Sunday, January 3, 2010

As the controversy regarding Gerry Adams and the PSNI's part, in decades of cover up with regard to child sexual abuse in the Northern part of Ireland rages on, a news blackout exists on the matter in the Free State.Some blame the new Blasphemy Law for intimidation of weak journalists on the matter. Only the very British Belfast Telegraph published a public statement yesterday by Sinead O' Connor with regard to child abuse and its nationwide enablers. Catholic media sitll detest O'Connor for going public on the widespread systemic child abuse in a Catholic country still in denial about its seriousness.
Sinead O'Connor said that the Pope should come to Ireland to
personally apolozise for the litany of crimes against children
outlined in the Ryan and Murphy reports.

She said "In 1987, the Church in Ireland took out an insurance policy
to protect themselves from claims they foresaw would be brought
against them from survivors of clerical abuse and their families. If
they knew as far back as 1987, why did they not deal with the issue
then?"

"In all this time and with the Ryan report and now the Murphy report,
why did neither Pope John Paul II or Pope Benedict get on a plane and
come to Ireland to meet the survivors, to personally apologise and
thank them for their bravery in coming forward?

"It seems to me the Church themselves should have been the ones to
bring this matter into the public arena," she said. "One of the
reasons I feel so passionately about these issues is that I am myself
a survivor of severe child abuse."

I myself would go much further and say that the Vatican itself should
now be the subject of criminal investigation into what went on in the
Irish Catholic Church," she says. "They knew in 1987 what was going on
in the Irish Church -- they did nothing but act to preserve their
business interests.

These are the people who acted in the interests of children and in the
interests of Catholicism. Ireland owes them a massive debt of
gratitude for bringing us the truth and therefore allowing us to
disentangle ourselves from oppression and lies.

The Republic's Minister Barry should organise for a monument, to be
paid for by the Catholic Church, to be erected in every diocese to
honour and thank these brave people who have fought to be heard and
changed the course of Irish history.

Their names should be set in stone so that this country will never
forget their courage and they will remain an inspiration for
generations to come," she said.